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My Wife's First Seizure, or was it?

Mon, 12/29/2014 - 15:18

This Christmas, while I was working the night shift in the Australian Outback, my wife was with her family opening Christmas day gifts when she fell over unconcious, quit breathing, regained her breathing, and then convulsed in a seizure. Our family took her to the hospital, and all the tests came back clean. I came home immediately, but trying to get the first hand version of what happened has proven to be problematic, everyone has a different version, but I digress. I have three main questions I am looking to find answers to, and will list them as such.

1. The nuerologist on staff who treated her diagnosed this as an alcohol withdrawl seizure. My wife said she had 4-5 beers the night before. In reading, I have seen other causes as well which may have contributed. My wife is a regular Benadryl user for going to sleep, she has recently had a great deal of stress in her life due to the murder of one of her friends, and the death of the son of one of her friends, she has also had a disruption in her normal sleep routine during the holidays. So, I am trying to figure out what causes, or causes, contributed to this happening, and would like to hear more information.

2. For the past couple of years my wife had "hot and dizzy" spells. The onset of these were sudden, and were marked by intense sweating, dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, weakness, and impaired mental ability. These spells would happen without warning, be spaced a couple months apart, and last in duration from 15 to 45 minutes. Her doctor passed this off as early onset menopause, but given recent events and not knowing what types of seizures there are, could these have in fact been a form of seizure? This is a question I would like to ask a doctor, but unfortunately we can't get an appointment to see one for the next fifteen days.

3. As we live in a very rural area, my wife drives 60 miles round trip to work daily. Her license has been suspended for six months due to this. Public transportation here is pretty much non-existant. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to over come this? My work takes me away for five and a half weeks at a time, so unfortunately, I can't.

Really appreciate anything to help further my knowledge.

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